Greetings All,

I am having vast troubles playing vcds on my P133, win95 computer. I downloaded the latest version of Windows Media Player, which worked fine with a vcd on one of the machines at uni, but when I installed it and then tried to play the same vcd at home, it gives me some dodgy "MCI device/driver not found" (or something) message.

Then I tried VCDPowerPlayer, similar error. Xing MPegPlayer, similar error. VcdPlayer (a dodgy visual basic player), said it had opened the .dat file, but then gave me some dodgy error about "FileName field not initialised" or something.

ANy ideas?? I've just downloaded softpeg trial, but I doubt that'll work either. I can't understand why Media Player didn't work here, when it worked fine at uni.

Please Help! :(

-- Donovan Winch (winch@ist.flinders.edu.au), June 19, 1999

Answers

What video card do you have? You must have a video card and driver that supports mpeg video.

-- Jellyroll (jellyrol@sfsu.edu), June 20, 1999.

Windows Media Player has bad bugs. You have to uninstall it, and all the Movie players on your machine. The best way to do it, is to reformat the drive(after a backup) and install only Xing. For some odd reason Microsoft Windows Media Player hates VCDs, you have to use a real player(I know this because my machines had similar problems). Do not upgrade the Media Player for 95 or Beta 3 98(crack exists for Beta 3) it just causes problems. Best to avoid it and PAY FOR not pirate the software.

-- Will Shakes (soldier0081@hotmail.com), June 21, 1999.

Greetings,

Hmmm... I've just got an old el-cheapo legend 2meg pci video card, but I was under the impression that the software was what was important. I can watch other mpegs, avis, movs, etc. (both with and without sound) through media player, just vcds refuse to work with this dodgy 'MCI device corrupt or not initialised error'.

There's no way I'm going to buy Xing without any proof that it'll actually run on my hardware either, so for now I've just got the trial demo, downloaded from their site. Media Player works fine on the NT machines here at uni, but it's not good having to come in here to watch vcds all the time! :)

Does anyone have any suggestions that don't involve reinstalling windows and praying??

Thanks again, Donovan Winch. (winch@ist.flinders.edu.au)

-- Donovan Winch (winch@ist.flinders.edu.au), June 23, 1999.

The long answer:

Windows Media Player 5.2 and 6.0/6.1 currently do not support VCDs. Everyone thinks it does because it will open them. No one has noticed that you have to select All Files(*.*) to view the disc. Also Media Player has no kareoke features. In order for you to view the movie, you have to buy software and use the purchased copy to view a film. Not written on the page but truthfully, the trial version of Xing only a limited time frame of movies. Now your 2 Meg video card should work fine. If you are really hard pressed to view a film and refuse to reformat and reinstall, just install a retail version of XingMPEG. Why do I know this will work? Because my freakin Laptop and Computer all had the same problem. After reformating and reinstalling a newer release of Windows 98(ie. the Retail upgrade or Second Edition) and then Media Player every problem went away. I added a more powerful VCD Player for better functions(i.e kareoke and better compatibility). This may be the case since you are using Win95(I used to Use 98 Beta 3 but then upgraded to Windows 98 Retail). Try that first and if worst comes to worst you may have to go to Windows 98 just to use a free movie player.

-- Will Shakes (soldier0081@hotmail.com), June 24, 1999.